Thursday, July 15, 2010

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] "The hybrid city as an interface"

Some 'planetary colleagues' were having dinner; Pier Luigi Capucci started a
conversation about the relevance of 'information' as a topic for Yasmin
discussions; He thinks it is not interesting...a so generalist concept... he
was talking about reality; professor Antonio Caronia joined the conversation
and in the end of a walking through the uselessness of Shanon&Weaver theory
in the subjective realm, we were talking about languages, idioms, grammar,
names, all the names<http://www.amazon.com/All-Names-Jose-Saramago/dp/0151004218>
...
Do you know Italo Calvino, Clarissa? Asked Amos Bianchi; I had a book with
me in my backpack - The Castle of Crossed
Destinies<http://www.amazon.com/Castle-Crossed-Destinies-Italo-Calvino/dp/0156154552/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279235108&sr=1-16>;
and we were talking about the Unexistent
Knight<http://www.amazon.com/Nonexistent-Knight-Cloven-Viscount/dp/0156659751/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279234217&sr=1-11>
...
and the Difficult
Loves<http://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Loves-Italo-Calvino/dp/0156260557/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279234217&sr=1-10>
...

It is raining here in Plymouth... this invisible city; I went home half an
hour ago; I was revisiting the rainy Plymouth as it was covered by La nuvola
di smog (1958); where, the reality on my walk home? where an interface to
name a city? no more information; no more reality; no more city; no more
interface; face to face, we were sharing 'something-dynamically-stored-in
our-body-cloud-of-something'; something as powerful and real as la nuvola di
smog; so difficult to support, so difficult to explain... amori difficili.

Clarissa Ribeiro

Visiting PhD researcher at the CAiiA-Hub, Planetary Collegium; PhD student
at the University of Sao Paulo, School of Communications and Arts, Brazil.

http://gogogoch.net


2010/7/15 Veroniki Korakidou <vkorakidou@yahoo.gr>

>
> Dear Dimitris, Martin and team,
>
> First of all, congratulations on taking up this very interesting subject.
>
> As Athens city is currently so hot and hummid, by reading your statement, I
> immediately flashed back on "They Live" a 1988 motion picture directed by
> John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay based on Ray Nelson's 1963
> short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning." Pretty sure you all have seen
> it.
>
> "Part science fiction thriller and part dark comedy, the film echoed
> contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and
> conspicuous consumption common among Americans in the 1980s. In They Live,
> the ruling class within the moneyed elite are in fact aliens managing human
> social affairs through the use of a signal on top of the TV broadcast that
> is concealing their appearance and subliminal messages in mass media."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live
>
> How's that related to the theme? Well, I guess it isn't;-)
>
> Unless one puts on their "sunglasses"...
>
> Best,
> Veroniki
>
> --- Στις Τετ., 14/07/10, ο/η Dimitris Charitos <vedesign@otenet.gr>
> έγραψε:
>
>
> Από: Dimitris Charitos <vedesign@otenet.gr>
> Θέμα: [Yasmin_discussions] Announcing new discussion topic on the subject
> of "The hybrid city as an interface"
> Προς: yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> Κοιν.: yasmin_announcements@estia.media.uoa.gr
> Ημερομηνία: Τετάρτη, 14 Ιούλιος 2010, 23:21
>
>
> Dear YASMINers,
>
> A moderated discussion on the subject of "The hybrid city as an interface"
> will take place in the YASMIN_discussions mailing list forum
> (www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin), starting from today and until the end of July.
> The discussion will be moderated by Dimitris Charitos and Prof. Martin
> Rieser, along with Daphne Dragona, Haris Rizopoulos and Iouiliani Theona as
> respondents. We intend to continue the discussion, if there is interest
> from
> list participants, after the summer.
>
> Below you will find a text with more info on the particular discussion
> topic. Also we have attached short CVs of all respondents who will
> participate.
>
> We are looking forward to you participation and involvement.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Dimitris Charitos
> Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Media Studies
> University of Athens
>
>
> "The hybrid city as an interface"
>
> In the beginning of the 21st century, urban environments, within which
> social life evolves, are radically being reordered by technological systems
> and networks. Mobile telephony has restructured the way people socialize
> within urban space (Plant, 2001). Multi-user virtual environments redefine
> the meaning of mediated communication by immersing communicating
> participants into a synthetic spatial context. ICTs and new media may also
> be used for augmenting physical environments in order to communicate
> meaning. The contemporary urban environment already incorporates various
> kinds of representations of reality, communicated to us all via various
> media and appropriate display systems (most of these representations are
> visual, i.e. billboards, video projections, wall paintings, closed circuit
> TV, touch screens, etc). These environments may also incorporate systems
> that capture visual, auditory, and other types of information regarding
> human activity and, consequently, utilize this input to affect the process
> of generating digital representations. The most advanced form of such
> systems is pervasive and ubiquitous computing systems (Weiser, 1991). It
> could then be suggested (Charitos, 2005) that the incorporation of
> information and communication technology (ICT) systems results in an
> electronic enhancement of the everyday urban environment and that
> communication with these environments and with other citizens who exist and
> act within them is mediated by these systems.
>
> The convergence of new mobile telecommunication networks, geographical
> positioning systems and interactive graphical interfaces on mobile devices,
> as they are already being utilized in a series of location-based
> activities,
> have begun to reveal the potential for new forms of interpersonal
> communication. These systems may allow groups of people to interact with
> each other, while being aware of each other's location at all times via
> representations on mobile interfaces, which have a predominantly spatial
> character. The synchronous experience of a mobile spatial interface and of
> the non-mediated physical environment, ultimately affords a hybrid
> (synthetic and physical) spatial experience, in the context of which novel
> forms of social interaction and cultural practices may occur.
>
> Hybrid cities could therefore be seen as spatial interfaces affording
> experiences which involve both virtual and physical spatial elements and
> information and which may synchronously support computer-mediated and
> interpersonal communication. Such emerging types of communication may lead
> to revolutionary new ways of inhabiting urban space, ultimately
> transforming
> the way we perceive, experience and think about our cities and our everyday
> life within them. These developments certainly call for reconsidering the
> way in which urban environments are conceived of and designed, by taking
> into account the incorporation of these ICT systems, since they are
> inseparably woven into the fabric of everyday life within the urban
> context.
> What is even more important, however, is the impact of these phenomena on
> everyday life in the city, at a social and cultural level.
>
> The "Hybrid City as an Interface" discussion will attempt to approach a
> series of issues relating to the emergence of these phenomena and will
> mainly focus on the following topics:
> . user generated maps & collective cartographies : issues of
> appropriation and expropriation
> . the internet and the metropolis: similarities between the virtual
> space and the real space as factories of knowledge and information
> . the city as a gamespace: tracing the playful features of the new
> modes of interactivity and participation
> . psychogeographies & the contemporary city: discussing the wide use
> of a 60s situationist notion for the definition of digital city
> interventions and applications
> . Whose city exactly? Reconsidering spatial production processes
> through ludic, user inter-actions within the urban context.
> . Which side are you on (on the threshold)? Outlining the relations
> between the virtual and physical experience of the city, as well as the new
> social dynamics of this hybrid urban context for everyday life.
>
> References
> Charitos, D. (2005). Virtual reality: A new kind of human-computer
> interface
> or a new communication medium? Issues of Communication, 2, 83-99, Athens:
> Kastaniotis.
> Plant, S. (2001). On the mobile: The effects of mobile telephones on social
> and individual life. Study commissioned by Motorola. Retrieved August 2,
> 2007, from http://www.motorola.com/mot/doc/0/234_MotDoc.pdf
> Weiser, M. (1991). The computer for the twenty-first century. Scientific
> American, 265(3), 94-104.
>
> BIOGRAPHICAL INFO of DISCUSSION RESPONDENTS
>
> Dimitrios Charitos is an assistant professor at the Faculty of
> Communication
> and Media Studies of the University of Athens. He teaches "Human-Computer
> Communication", "Art & Technology", "Visual Communication", "Mediated
> Environments". He has studied architectural design, computer aided design
> and has a PhD on interactive design and virtual environments. He has taught
> at an undergraduate and postgraduate level since 1994 in Scotland and
> Greece. He has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications in books,
> journals or conference proceedings. His artistic work involves electronic
> music, audiovisual, non-interactive or interactive, site-specific
> installations and virtual environments. (www.media.uoa.gr/~charitos)
>
> Professor M. Rieser is a Media Artist and Theorist based in Bristol.
> Professor of Digital Creativity at De Montfort University. 2000-7 Professor
> of Digital Arts and Senior Teaching Fellow Bath Spa University , was
> Principal Lecturer in Digital Media at Napier University in Edinburgh at
> the
> Department of Photography, Film, and Television 1997-2000. and in post as
> Senior Lecturer in Electronic Media at UWE Bristol between 1986 - 1998. He
> set up one of the first post-graduate courses in the country in Digital Art
> and Imaging at the City of London Polytechnic, now the London Guildhall
> University 1980-85. His teaching and practice centres on new types of
> interactive art which use non-linear narrative in new media through
> Locative, interactive installations, networked art projects and
> collaborations with architects. He has acted as consultant to bodies such
> as
> Cardiff Bay Arts Trust , NESTA, Arkive, AHRC the Photographers Gallery
> London. External Examiner at UIAH Helsinki, St Martins University of the
> Arts and Glamorgan University Professor of Digital Ats at Bath Spa
> University 2000-2007. He recently edited: New Screen Media: Cinema/
> Art/Narrative (BFI/ZKM,
> 2002)- which combined a DVD of current research and practice in this area
> together with critical essays . He was on AHRB research leave during 2004-5
> creating a new locative work for Bath Abbey called Hosts 2006, which used
> mobile and positional technologies combined with interactive sound and
> video
> and has just authored a book on Locative Media Arts called The Mobile
> Audience shortly to be published by Rodopi.
>
> Daphne Dragona is a media arts curator based in Athens. Her exhibitions and
> events the last few years have focused on the notion of play and its
> merging
> with art as a form of networking and resistance. She has worked with
> Fournos
> Center for Digital Culture (Greece) , LABoral Art and Industrial Creation
> Centre (Spain), Alta Tegnologia Andina (Peru) and with the National Museum
> of Contemporary Art in Athens. She is also a PhD candidate in the Faculty
> of
> Communication & Media Studies of the University of Athens and a member of
> the Personal Cinema collective.
>
> Charalampos Rizopoulos is a researcher at the Department of Communication
> and Media Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
> After graduating from the aforementioned department in 2003, he obtained a
> MSc in Interactive Multimedia Production from the University of
> Huddersfield, UK. He is currently a doctoral candidate, conducting research
> on the communicational aspects of interacting with intelligent
> environments.
> His research interests include human-computer interaction, ubiquitous
> computing, virtual reality, multimedia, spatial cognition, adaptive
> systems,
> and computer games.
>
> Iouliani Theona is a practising architect and a researcher. She studied at
> the School of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and
> later obtained a Degree from the Inter-Departmental Postgraduate Programme:
> Architectural Design - Space - Culture, in the School of Architecture of
> the
> National Technical University of Athens.
> She is currently a PhD Candidate in the aforementioned institution,
> focusing
> on subjects such as pervasive games and spatial perception.
>
>
>
> ********************************************************************
> Dr. Dimitrios Charitos
> Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Media Studies
> National and Kapodistrian University of
> Athens
> e-mail: vedesign at otenet dot gr
> URL: www.media.uoa.gr/~charitos
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to.
> In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and
> password in the fields found further down the page.
>
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter
> your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the
> unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>
> HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
> Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to.
> In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and
> password in the fields found further down the page.
>
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter
> your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the
> unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>
> HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
> Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.

HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").

HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.